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The economic crisis has started to create investment opportunities in Europe but is still curbing growth in parts of Asia, speakers at the Financial Review Commercial Property Conference said this week.

Investment manager MGPA chairman Jim Quille said fantastic opportunities would arise in Europe, particularly for secondary properties, as banks were forced to dispose of distressed assets.

“There has been a flood of investor money into core assets in Europe but secondary assets are almost impossible to get debt on, which makes no sense,” Mr Quille said. “If you can fund opportunities at the core end of secondary assets and reposition them, there are good opportunities there.”

Property markets in Europe were relatively transparent and stable in comparison with Asia and Latin America, and some parts of Europe had not been as badly affected by the economic crisis as other areas, he said.

France, Germany and the UK together accounted for just under 60 per cent of the investable property assets in Europe.

Mr Quille said Germany was an attractive market as it offered diversification by industry group and had a strong economy.

Poland was another that offered potential.

“We like Poland because it has a large population, it’s the only European country that did not go into recession in the GFC, it has an educated workforce, and throughput through [to the former Soviet bloc nations],” Mr Quille said.

Separately, shopping centre landlord Charter Hall Retail REIT plans to sell out of its Polish shopping centre assets, which have been performing relatively well, as it shifts its focus back to the Australian market.

US-based retail giant Simon Property Group has also scaled back its presence in Poland, and also in France and Italy.

CBRE executive director and head of research for Asia Pacific Nick Axford said countries in the Asia-Pacific region had been affected by the economic turmoil in Europe to varying degrees. “Europe is not homogenous,” Mr Axford said. “There are very big discrepancies in those markets.

“Asia is also nowhere near a homogenous block,” he added.

The property markets in parts of Asia that had closer trade ties to the US and Europe, such as Singapore and Hong Kong, were slowing.

Across the region, economic and property price growth were expected to be better this year than in 2011, although still below historical levels. Mr Axford thought there would be a further improvement in 2013.

He said prime assets in the region looked expensive and while there were plenty of opportunities, they were difficult places to invest in.